Hi guys. Have installed aptosid (xfce4) in virtualbox. Everything works - great job! Just a few niggling issues that I'd like some input if possible:

1. irqbalance fail - reading around it seems I should just ignore the whole thing. Am I right?

2. Error: unable to locate IOAPIC for gs1, etc - again googling around it looks like it has to be dealt with by the kernel people, so ignore. Am I right?

The above 2 does not interfere with the installation which runs fine.

3. The main thing I would like to correct if it is possible is that just after the grub menu, there is a lag of about 5 or so seconds of a blank window before the window changes and then booting commences. My guess is that it is due to kms kicking in. As I have little use for kms - this installation is just for internet access and browsing - I would prefer to speed up boot if possible. I have set it to boot into init 3. Do you think it is due to kms and if so how can I bypass it if possible?

4. Finally it would really be great if I can set things to boot directly into user and X - ie without the need for display manager and logging in. Right now I boot to prompt and log in from there. Then startx. As I said this is a virtual machine and I have no need for security, and a greater desire for convenience. My google-fu is not up to par as I cannot find anything about this for debian. In archlinux I just need to add a line or two in inittab. If someone can point me in the right direction that would be great, or if you know it is just not possible in debian, please let me know.

3. The main thing I would like to correct if it is possible is that just after the grub menu, there is a lag of about 5 or so seconds of a blank window before the window changes and then booting commences.

this is grub2 related and afaik there is nothing that enduser can do/tweak.

madsid wrote:

4. Finally it would really be great if I can set things to boot directly into user and X - ie without the need for display manager and logging in.

configure the display manager to start directly bypassing the login procedure. take a look into "gdmsetup"